The Committee on Environmental Thought

The Committee on Environmental Thought (ComET) is an environmental theory research group based at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Members of the group seek to investigate and explore environmental problems and the normative presuppositions that inform, frame, and guide solutions to these problems.

ComET projects include academic papers, work in public philosophy, film projects, and outreach in environmental philosophy.

ComET also curates Environmental Thoughts, a platform for sharing tools from philosophy in environmental problem solving, management, and policy.

The Wild and the Wicked

"The idea that humans have a unique ability to act for reasons, as opposed to behaving like mere animals, also figures in THE WILD AND THE WICKED: On Nature and Human Nature (MIT Press, $29.95), by the environmental ethicist Benjamin Hale. Hale’s concern is how to “justify environmentalism — why we should preserve, defend or protect nature.” Hale finds the two main approaches to this question wanting. Groups like the World Wildlife Foundation and the Sierra Club argue that nature is intrinsically valuable: “grand and wonderful and awesome.” Hale dismisses this as naïve romanticism that ignores the inconvenient fact that nature is also “nasty and horrible and cruel.” But the alternative approach, prominent in today’s debates about climate change, is to view nature as instrumentally valuable, with human well-being and survival providing the justification for protecting the environment. Hale fears this approach loses sight of the guiding ethos of the environmental movement: its “concern for nature” as such." -- James Ryerson, NY Times